I’ve had a “honeymoon” weekend with my wife and that is close to paradise to me. On Friday afternoon we left the noisy and stressful city for a 4 hours trip to our summerhouse in Sweden, this time without the children. We chatted about all and nothing as well as sometimes sitting quiet, enjoying our company is food for the soul. A whole weekend ahead, with all the options and anticipation – what more can a married couple ask for.
It’s still summer in the Nordic countries with a late sunset around 9pm, but you see signs along the road that fall is on its way. It’s now time for the harvest and I could not resist capturing this field full of rolls of hay. As normal, all the pics in this post are taken with my Nokia mobile phone, please click on them to enlarge.
It is fascinating how the stress literally runs off your back when entering Mariestad and our apartment. There are different, but very important rituals to follow and my first is to open a cold beer. This one is Danish, a Carlsberg, and their slogan is: “When does a Carlsberg taste best?…. and the answer is of course “every time”:-)
The bowl to the left is to rinse your fingers after pealing. White wine is a must and this time we had an Italian Soave from the Valpolicella region: Masi 2003, which tasted excellent (please visit my blog friend Italian’s Insight to Travel Italy for more wine and culture information!) . It’s still too bright for candle lights, but it was very romantic anyway;-).
After cleaning off the table, it’s time for coffee avec on the balcony to enjoy our precious company and the lovely long lasting sunset. To show you the serving, I arranged the whole dessert on our dinner table. Coffee is made in a press can we got from my daughter for Christmas and the dessert was a wienerbrød, a butter pastry filled with egg crème and chocolate we had Hennessy cognac to top off the evening. Sitting there in the quietness, you can’t blame me for calling this precisely quality time. This is how we charge our batteries for the daily routines and challenges.
We had other memorable moments this evening too of course, but I take it you understand we consider them private;-). Not too early to bed, we had our golf round early the day after anyway – see earlier posts for details on our golf obsession. This one was special though, since my wife finally got her white handicap card and her swing is excellent too!
Then we had a trip through the charming town of Mariestad, visiting the sports store to talk to our golf expert, buying an ice cream to eat on a bench in the park and enjoying the lovely summer atmosphere. It was so beautiful that I would love to share the view and the flowers with you.
I don’t consider this blog, my Terella, a food blog, but it’s an important part of my daily life so I’ve decided to share some with you this time because it shows some of our food tradition too. Today we had a traditional summer meal of herring and potatoes; along with it we have onion, eggs, beets, cauliflower, and crème fraises. To Old Norwegian traditional foods like herring of course we had aquavit from Linie distillery and beer. Bon appetite!
Tomorrow it’s a new round on the golf course before heading for home in Norway and another ordinary work week. But still there is more time left on our honeymoon trip and we are enjoying every minute of it. These precious time in our paradise definitely qualifies for quality time, don’t you think?
You ought to enter a “Top Ten World Husbands” competition. My spouse is no slouch, but he’s not up to your standards.
Two nights ago I made a shrimp dish with fresh garden tomatoes, cream, shallots, basil and wine. Otherwise I would be gnawing my computer now, trying to get at that food of yours.
Sounds like you had a very good time!
Renny – That looks REALLY good. I should tell you I have a special weakness for Valpolicella wines. I lived in the valle for about 10 years and on the weekends would go to the Consorzio with my kids to help my farmer friends turn their grapes into wine.
how much fun renny. It’s so cool you can just jet off to Sweden so easily. I guess it could be the same as us getting into the US (although I’m told I shouldn’t go at the moment.)
The hay have taken my breath away. I so want to photograph this and youhave..
I’m in heaven!
Your romantic weekend sounds perfectly lovely, Renny! The food looks delicious, too. It’s almost 11 pm Saturday night as I post this comment, so there’s quite a time difference from Norway to Arkansas, US.
Mmmmm, I had to stop myself from salivating on the keyboard. So picturesque!
THAT’S LIFE- as they say here, good on you and thank you for sharing your food and other adventures (more like a retreat). Rgds from down under.
Lovely pictures Renny! I am back now and yes, the weather here is still nice especially now in Bergen. I love to be back home again!
Renny, Thanks for dropping in.
Your weekend does sound like paradise and the food has my mouth watering. I really love the fields with the rolls of hay.
mmm, now i am hungry for dinner. what time will we be dining? also, since i’ve just returned from a weeklong trip i caught up on your last post. looks liek a wonderful time, especially that wool pile and the archery. my children and i are active at a local living historical farm that works according to early 19th century standards so i really enjoyed the farm post.
Hi Renny!
That food makes me HUNGRY! It reminds me of being in Denmark and Finland and Sweden a couple of years ago. I’ll be baaack! Enjoy your weekend!
Renny – What a lovely weekend. I looking forward to trying the open-faced shrimp sandwich – YUM! Thanks for sharing with us. It’s been so hot in Florida, it is nice to hear about nice summer weather.
that does all look and sound so wonderful. what love !
Beautiful! We’ll have to come visit some time. Especially now that we have our new “daughter” from Sweden (arrived yesterday!). :-) Lyn
It looks great RennyBA,
I wanted to say I like the pics of your family at the farm too.
I saw you in peeps funny I looked and said that’s RennyBA! I was there for Canadutch.
hehehe!
Charles is back!!!
Wow! What a wonderful weekend!
Married couples should do that sort of things more often. Forget for a weekend the kids, the stress, the problems at work, the traffic…
In other words enjoy life like it should be.
By the way, who washed the dishes after the meals? ;-)
is it your wedding anniversary?
when you were describing the shrimps, you made me hungry.. hehehe.
hmmm.. it’s fall once again. meaning, my bday is really near! hahaha.
when’s your bday by the way?
stop blogging! extend your honeymoon! ;)
What a lovely getaway. Great idea to prioritize each other like that.
This makes me SOOO hungry! And the pictures are great. I hope you had a wonderful weekend together.
@AnneJohnson: Thanks for the nomination! You dish sound delicious too!
@Grish: Thanks for your visit – yes we did have a great time.
@TravelItaly: Woow, living in the Valpolicella valley sound almost like paradise too!
@ExpatTraveler: Maybe a trip home to Europe instead? Thanks for the pic compliments – looking forward to yours then! Glad I could show you the gateway:-)
@Diane: Thanks for you nice comment. Yes it’s a wide world, blogging goes on 24/7 you know:-)
@LynAnne: Glad you liked it. Stay tuned, there might be more!
@VICKY: Glad you liked it too – always great to hear from people down under:-)
@CharlesRavndal: Thanks and welcome back home to Bergen, Norway. Great posts about your trip – have a look al of you!
@Dominique: Thanks for returning the visit – I’m glad you liked the pic – welcome back!
@Lime: How about next weekend, same place, same time? God to hear that you and your children have great and interesting farm activities too!
@Meepers: A real Scandinavian traveller – please include Norway next time – I’ll gladly guide you around!
@hexe: Glad I gave you a great way to eat shrimps then! Yea, I know your place is hotter than ours, but it’s summer here too and we enjoy it you know:-)
@B: Thanks for your visit and welcome back any time.
@Lyn: Good to hear that your new daughter from Sweden is over safe and sound! Then you will learn even more about the Nordic culture and tradition and another good reason to visit us!
@Lynn: Thanks for the compliment – I’m glad you liked both the posts. 25peeps is fun – thanks for the visit there too! Yes, good to hear Charles is back home safe and sound!
@Sidney: Well said Sidney! We shared the dishes too: She washed while I was drying:-)
@Tin-tin: No, no but we like to refer it as a honeymoon you know. Tell me when is your bday! Mine is 4th of November (will be interesting to see how many of you notice:-)
Heheeh I can do both and it’s great fun!
@Pearl’sNummies: Funny because I was about to title the post ‘Gateway to paradise’!
@Barbara: We had plenty, so you could have your share if you had come over!
Renny, you are such a wonderfully romantic man! I’m guessing most of the ladies out there would die for you :) So so glad that you understand at your age how important it still is to work for and on those special “honeymoon” moments! Thanks for sharing :)
Thanks for visiting my blog today! I had to come visit you since I have never seen your name before. Glad I did! The pictures of the country side were beautiful! I saw a lot of scenery like that last month as we drove across upper state New York. So close you would almost think they are in the same country! But your cooking. Now fish dishes are something my hubby never cooks for me (he is very allergic) and it is just not the same when one cooks for themself.
My hubby would so agree with you on the cold beer but I prefer the wine!
Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend with the wife! Thanks for sharing it with us!
Sounds like you had a fantastic time. Your photos of those dishes are droolerific…and I don’t even like shrimp that much. lol
RennyBa!
I didnt even notice that you won the blogs of summer! Sorry for being completely blind!
Congratulations!
Sounds and looks wonderful…
Live Life Kingsize
Noojes
It all looks so beautiful. You certainly seem familiar with the finer things :) Wishing you many more weekends just like this.
Ohhh,I envy of your awesome weekend renny! wish my darling will treat me just the same one weekend soon;)
Lovely photos as usual.Thanks for sharing! tlc!
:) how romantic!!!
It is late but — congratulations for winning Blogs of Summer!!!!
Sorry for not writing comments lately but I visit your blog and read your entries
I’m new to your blog, so others have probably commented this before, but . . . YOU TAKE YOUR PHOTOS WITH YOUR PHONE?????
Wonderful! so glad you visited (my pic is from the Pyrenees! going back home to Barcelona)nice to meet you!!!
Hey, Michael from Ryze here. good stuff RennyBA, I’ve linked you to my blogsome. :D
Wow, looking at your blog post today makes me very hungry RennyBA!
It looks like you had a lovely time!
Renny I’m sure it will stay too. We’ve had beautiful clouds lately. Been trying to snap up a few, especially before Ginnie visits here. (october)
Renny – I’d love to go to Europe. Costs are a problem at the moment plus I doubt I’d be leaving P behind, he comes with me!
And I can’t leave Canada until the immigration is complete…
Here’s to being patient!
Ooooohhhh! Honeymooon! Sweet! The title of the entry says it all, I guess. :-)
your bday is november 4??? wow!!! you’re just 4 days older than me. hahaha :)
wow so sweet of you Renny!
You are definitely one in a million, not many like you and that is definitely a good thing for your little lady.
I envy you, yet am so happy that you can still share moments like this, that’s what love is all about… Perfect honeymoon I say.
Thank you for sharing such a pleasurable memory that will live forever in your hearts!
Hey Renny! Thanks for a great presentation today at HiO! Hope to see you soon! Had a little chat with Rune, and I think we will be starting up a MS-group at the school shortly. Anyways, have a nice day!
Hello! Thanks for todays presentation. Hope to hear you later!
looks like someone is having a great time. happy for you.
wow! sooo romantic!
You know i feel hungry those foods :)
God Bless…
@Ginnie: Thanks for the compliments! I wonder if for fact you understand the importance the older you get?
@Reverberate58: Thanks – always a pleasure to have new readers on board! You’re so right about the similarity in nature. My wife is from NY and when visiting this strokes me he same.
Welcome over: your husband and me for a beer – you and my wife for a glass of wine:-)
@Shushan: Thanks – give it a try then!
@Lynn: Thanks – congrats is always welcome you know.
@Noojes: I do: Norway and Sweden is a Kingdome you know:-)
@CheH: Glad we could inspire you – looking forward to see you keeping us posted on your blog!
@AL Bjørnstad: Thanks AL – good to see you again as a good friend and regular visitor!
@Teena: It was – try yourself:-)
@Ruth: Yes, with my Nokia 6680 – there will be more, so stay tuned.
@mar: Thanks for returning my visit then and welcome back!
@Michael: Great to see a Ryze friend here too and thanks for the link!
@BarefootMistress: Sorry there was no shrimps left then – another time Susie:-)
@ExpatTraveler: Have seen some in your new post – recommend others to visit to!!!!
Do understand you need to stay and I know you have a great time. But remember your welcome any time, even for a short visit and to show P to tempt him a bit:-)
@Talamasca: yes, it was heavenly good:-)
@Mmy-Lei: Thanks for your regular visit and comments – yes it was great!
@ 服從到只一 A.K.A: Sugar Cat: Your so right: that’s what loves are all about and it was a thrill money can’t buy you know.
@IsrarKhan: Thanks for the visit to my blog then – I’m glad you liked my presentation! Good luck with your MS-group.
@Anonymous: Likewise as for Israr.
@SlimWhale: Thanks SW.
@ethel: Glad you liked – would you like to join next time maybe:-)
renny, i enjoyed reading your blog very much. i have added it to my daily reads…the posts about food, beer and wine had me instantly! i will go ahead and check out your flickr as well. my husband and i are about to take our first trip together without the kids to the Mayan Riviera in December and reading about your blissful weekend away, i am less nervous about being away from them…it’s important in any marraige to have time alone together to connect, relax and…tend to private matters ;) i’ll keep reading, i love learning about different cultures around the world! take care, andrea. (yayagirlcanada.spaces.live.com)
Getting time of alone with the Mrs (no kids in sight) would eb a wonderful thing. I’m glad yoo had a nice trip to Sweden.
Don’t tempt me with food picture, I am always game for new taste experiences.
beautiful pictures of your lovely weekend. the food pictures make me feel very hungry right now ;-)
Ah, you are such a romantic, renny and your wife is a lucky gal! You guys deserve a weekend like that! We don’t have kids but still need to get away from everything as we just did too. Haven’t had time to blog yet , but the bass fishing was great!
@yayagirlcanada/Andrea: I’m glad you liked it and thank you for adding me. Hope you find something interested at my Flickr acout too.
I’m gald I could inspire you to a “honeymoon” trip too – have fun:-)
I love to read others and about different cultures and habits too. In that way blogs are great!
@Tine: Thanks for the compliments. There might be more food here, so welcome back:-)
@MotherOfInvention: Well said, I’ll pass it to my wife:-)
Looking forward to your posts then!